Harmless Versus Dangerous Sun Damage

Unprotected sun exposure creates two distinct types of damage in the skin. First, it harmlessly breaks things, and second, it dangerously makes parts of the skin sick, and ultimately, these two types of sun damage are related.

The first type, just breaking the skin, is unattractive, but is completely harmless and called "Photo Aging." When the sun breaks collagen you get wrinkles. When the sun breaks elastic tissue you get sagging skin or even jowls. When the sun breaks the melanocytes (which are the pigment cells) you get brown spots or brown blotches. And when it breaks blood vessels, you get broken capillaries, spider veins or red blotches. Again all of these are harmless just unattractive.

But more importantly, when the sun makes your skin sick then it causes cancer. It does this by making the cells in the upper layer of the skin (the epidermis) sick. When it makes Basal cells sick it causes Basal cell cancer, the most common form of cancer in the world. When it makes the middle cells (squamous cells) sick, first you get a precancerous condition called Actinic Keratosis and in time that Actinic Keratosis will go on to be a Squamous Cell cancer. Lastly, when it makes the melanocytes (the pigment cells) sick, you develop deadly Melanoma.

I know one thing is for sure: people who have more broken things from the sun get more sick things from the sun. So, on behalf of your skin, to prevent broken skin and more importantly sick skin, please use sunscreen.

We can all agree that sun damage isn't good, but in order to truly grasp why we should prevent it, we should first understand it. Dr. Schultz explains the different types of sun damage, what they can lead to, and the golden rule of preventing them.